Headley 248-8 dec (Pickering J 55, Pickering A 53) bt Mogador Wanderers 120 a.o. (Pickering J 4-23, Elburn 2-18)

With Sunny skies and an in form side, Headley rolled up full of confidence for the first of this years clashes with local rivals, the Mogador Wanderers.

Headley handed full debuts to Alex Simmonds, a local wicketkeeper batsman, and Henry Elburn. There was also a first appearance of the season for Will Midmer, the current batting cup holder returning from an extended tour of India.

The tea was a Midmer / Midmer / Simmonds affair, with the skipper keen to make amends for his notorious effort against Chadwick, with a range of locally sourced delicacies. It still had to be freshly prepared however and in an attempt to escape sandwich making duties the home skipper drew out the toss to its maximum level, discussing every possible characteristic of the pitch and local rules with the likeable Mogador skipper.

The toss went Headley's way, and in continued attempts to avoid making sandwiches, the skipper decided to open the batting himself. Sadly he was gone after only four balls and with excuses running out he finally returned to the kitchen.

Josh Pickering strode to the crease at No.3 and immediately looked assured, working some classy shots off his legs and testing his brother Mitch's 'bad foot' with a number of sharp singles. The younger Pickering stood up to this examination well, but after 10 minutes he was exhausted and a tired looking cut shot was well caught by the Mogador keeper low to his right.

Pickering J was joined by the debutant Alex Simmonds. Traditionally somewhat of a run machine at school and University level, Simmonds did not quite get to grips with the slow Headley pitch in his first look at it, making a scratchy 14, before he mistimed one in the air to midwicket.

At 60-3, Midmer W emerged looking to rescue the family batting honour. The stylish right hander showed little signs of rustiness after his time on an Indian beach as he eased a number of signature cover drives to the boundary. Pickering J soon upped the tempo by smashing a towering on drive into the car park. With some good running between the wickets the pair took Headley to the 100 mark before Pickering J played one drive to many off the persevering medium pace of the oppo skipper, and was caught for a well made 55.

At 80-4 Pickering A replaced his son. With slow bowling now on at both ends, the Headley chairman was in his element, and some muscular sweeps and cuts were soon sending the ball racing to the boundary. Midmer W continued to work the ball around, but some wily leg spin from Fairclough at the Cock Inn end eventually wore him down, and the self styled 'club pro' was bowled for 34 as he tried to force the pace.

Having initially been expensive, Fairclough suddenly entered what is described by many professional sportsmen as 'the zone', first luring Taran Bassi down the pitch to be stumped, and then outfoxing Waller's rustic approach to leave honours fairly even at 170-7.

Fortunately for Headley, Pickering Snr. and Gareth Noble were in no mood to let the good position slip, and both began smashing the slightly more generous medium pace at the other end, Pickering hooking and driving 16 runs in one over, including a couple of sizeable hits over the road.

Fairclough continued to bowl well, but with two left handers at the crease the leg side boundary had become very short, and Noble launched a brutal assault with a number of sixes over the pavilion taking the score past the 'decent' 220 mark. Having reached 50 Pickering Snr. was bowled to give Fairclough a deserved fourth wicket but Noble carried on his merry way. He was joined in the final throes by 15 yr old debutant Henry Elburn, who joined the pavilion 'roof club' with a disdainful flick over midwicket.

Headley declared on 248-8. This seemed a decent total given the bowling reserves available, but the Mogadors had some decent batsmen and the home side prepared for a long spell in the field by fuelling up on cakes, pizza and brownies. It would have been rude not to.

Spirits were high as Headley entered the field, with a capacity crowd now filling the heath. They were raised even higher by high class opening spells from Henry Elburn and Alan Clarke. Elburn proved a revelation in his debut spell, with his nippy outs-wingers ripping out the Mogador top order, including the key wicket of Fairclough, who was adjudged lbw to an outs-winging yorker. Clarke was on the money from the other end, building pressure and having a number of decent shouts turned down, before a slightly shakier one was upheld by the visitor's umpire.

At 30-3 the Mogadors were reeling, but they counterattacked via a thrilling innings from their left handed No.3 bat, newly arrived from Hong Kong, and punishing anything loose from Clarke and Elburn to set the score racing past 50 at a 20/20-esque rate.

With spin brought on at both ends, the leftie battled on bravely, and he was briefly aided by the Mogador's aggressive No.5, who looked to get after Josh Pickering 'leggies', and Will Midmer's 'offies'. With these two at the crease the Mogadors had brief hope. Sadly for the visitors, after a few clean hits, the No.5 was soon undone by a ripping leg break from Pickering, which he could only edge to James Midmer at slip. A brilliant piece of fielding from Elburn then ran out the Mog's strong No.6 and the game was up.

The remainder of the innings turned into a procession as Pickering J turned in a virtuouso display of leg spin bowling, which included several demonstrations of his trademark dwarf ball. With his partners departing at a rate, the No.3 fought an increasingly lonely battle, until he was bowled by a decent out-swinger from Midmer W, whose offspin had swiftly turned into some slow medium once it had deteriorated.

Despite some defiant late hits from Honeydew, the Mogs were all out by 6:15, when their wicketkeeper edged Pickering to first slip, where the skipper took a diving catch to finish the game.